The New York Times' Scores

For 20,271 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Short Cuts
Lowest review score: 0 Gummo
Score distribution:
20271 movie reviews
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An excellent combination of comedy and excitement.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It Happened One Night is a good piece of fiction, which, with all its feverish stunts, is blessed with bright dialogue and a good quota of relatively restrained scenes.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It is a hearty and lively show, the story of which is just about equal to that of other musical offerings.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The film does offer some witty opening scenes depicting Carl Denham hounded by creditors following Kong's Gotham rampage. But the remainder of the film is sometimes laughably bad, and much of the dialogue is dated in a way that is not charming at all. [20 Sept 1987, p.36]
    • The New York Times
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The film begins in a gentle fashion and slips away smoothly without any forced attempt to help the finish to linger in the minds of the audience. Little Women is just as honest in its story as Jo's nature.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A production in which the bludgeon is employed more often than the gimlet. The result is that this production is, for the most part, extremely noisy without being nearly as mirthful as their other films.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The story makes such superb cinematic material that one wonders that Hollywood did not film it sooner. Now that it has been done, it is a remarkable achievement.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    While the various imaginery episodes shown on the screen, to the accompaniment of microphone comment by M. Cocteau himself, reinforced by English titles for those unfamiliar with French, have a certain fascination, especially for persons interested in film technique, they are hardly calculated to set the Hudson River on fire.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    It is not until Footlight Parade has been struggling through its plot for more than an hour that the fragments of song, costumed nymphs and technical virtuosity are finally integrated in a complete performance.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Although there are moments when the comedy is too rambunctious and scenes which are not precisely convincing, it is for the most part a merry, fast-paced diversion.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    It is unfurled with such marked good taste and restraint that many an eye will be misty after witnessing this production.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    A fantastic film.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The liveliest and one of the most tuneful screen musical comedies that has come out of Hollywood.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Well acted and clearly photographed little drama of musical hall life in Paris.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Three on a Match...is both tedious and distasteful.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The atmosphere of this tale is more interesting than its story, especially the glimpses of the men at work.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In its uncouth, brusque and implausible fashion "One Way Passage," a pictorial comedy drama which arrived at the Warners' Strand last night, offers quite a satisfactory entertainment.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In all, the picture adheres faithfully to the original and while it undoubtedly lacks the life and depth and color of the play, by means of excellent characterizations it keeps the audience on the qui vive.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Some of the fun is even more reprehensible than the doings of these clowns in previous films, but there is no denying that their antics and their patter are helped along by originality and ready wit.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It is a stirring picture, efficiently directed and capably acted, but as was once said of The Covered Wagon, that it was all very well if you liked wagons, so this is an excellent diversion for those who like to take an afternoon or an evening off to study the activities of cowardly thugs.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Freaks is not a picture to be easily forgotten.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It is by all odds the best picture Josef von Sternberg has directed.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fredric March is the stellar performer in this blood-curdling shadow venture.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    George Fitzmaurice, the director, has told his story in an intelligent and restrained fashion.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Safe in Hell is a little reminiscent of "The Unholy Garden," with its tropic sanctuary where rogues of various nationalities live out their days in happy oblivion, safe from the long arm of extradition. The theme is a good deal sadder, a sort of meldodramatization of all those sad songs about the women who will die rapturously for their men.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It is naturally a morbid, gruesome affair, but it is something to keep the spectator awake, for during its most spine-chilling periods it exacts attention.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Whether it is really as funny as Animal Crackers is a matter of opinion. Suffice it to say that few persons will be able to go... and keep a straight face.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mr. Galsworthy's narrative is bound to enlist one's attention, but Mr. Hitchcock, who is responsible for the adaptation as well as the direction, cannot be said to have accomplished either task in a fashion the subject deserves, for in undergoing the studio operation the original work has been sapped of its persuasive drama.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It is just another gangster film...weaker than most in its story, stronger than most in its acting, and like most maintaining a certain level of interest through the last burst of machine-gun fire.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Front Page displays a giddy bitterness that is rare in any films except those of Mr. Wilder. It is also, much of the time, extremely funny.

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